Earlier this year, Birmingham office rents breached £50 per sq ft for the first time.

At £52 per sq ft, headline rents in the city are now the highest outside London.

The northern trajectory of office rents in the city is welcome. It shows Birmingham is delivering aspirational stock and attracting blue-chip tenants.

For landlords, it’s an endorsement of their product. No surprise then, that the ink had barely dried on Evershed’s £52 per sq ft signing at 3 Chamberlain Square, Paradise, than its owner Federated Hermes put it on the market with a £123.2m price tag.

The valuation of the 191,000 sq ft Grade A office building was driven, certainly in part, by its headline rent and impressive tenant roster. I’ll be watching with interest to see what it fetches.

Nor will I be the only one: the funds will also be paying attention. Economic uncertainty, resulting in limited stock coming to the market, means recent transactional evidence is scant. Anecdotally, however, interest from investors is improving and the regions still offer compelling value compared to London and the South-East. Let’s hope this will help stimulate renewed investor interest in Birmingham.

Lenders too are likely to be on alert. Office rents are an important indicator of the market’s general health. The banks are more confident in a rising market and whilst borrowing has been tough in recent years, climbing rents may well improve viability as well as liquidity.

Birmingham’s new headline rent seems to have taken Birmingham’s office agency community a little by surprise, with even the most bullish predicting the £52 headline landing at the end of 2026, rather than in Q1.

In fairness, it’s an impressive leap from the £46 per sq ft headline that closed off Q4 2025, particularly as the usual supply constraints don’t apply: Birmingham currently has

circa 700,000 sq ft of new and Grade A offices available, 75% above the five-year average. With active enquiries for 665,000 sq ft, this will soon be gnawed away.

So, how far are we from a £60 per sq ft headline? One agent claims 2030. Probably not something that’s troubling the bookmakers, but if I were a betting man I’d put odds on it being sooner. Rising rents, potential supply constraints and HS2 means the fundamentals are moving in the right direction.